The Hello Bar is a simple notification bar that engages users and communicates a call to action.

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What Should Social Media Marketing Mean To You? Plenty

by Lori · 4 comments

Marketing Sherpa has released its 2011 review of social media marketing efforts and there are more than few surprises. And perhaps NOT surprisingly, social media has destroyed previous records for growth in advertising. Comapnies are pouring more and more of their resources into Internet marketing, specifically social media where the returns are far beyond what anyone imagined they would be a few years ago. A few years from now, who knows how big it will get.

This is MarketingSherpa’s third benchmark report analyzing how marketers are using social media to engage audience, build brand, generate leads and drive sales.

A key finding from the 2011 research is that, on average, marketers are reporting a 95 percent ROI on their social media efforts, with 30 percent reporting a ROI of at least 150 percent. It’s being delivered through social media integration, brand awareness, converting members and followers into paying customers, and generating and nurturing leads by executing an effective social marketing strategy. This is a dramatic shift from MarketingSherpa’s first research study that revealed marketers were unable to demonstrate ROI from social media.

Click here to read the entire article.

Social Media Madness – Be Careful What You Ask For

by Lori Taylor · 0 comments

It sounded like a good idea at the time, your boss said “Get us a Facebook page and get me some fans!”

You walk away politely muttering, “It’s likes, Mr Firestein…fans is like so 2010.”

But still you comply and later someone decides it would be a great idea to give away a piece of cake for every dinner purchased.   The great news is you rock at social media and spread the word.  Unfortunately you are too good and no one thinks about the costs of making enough free cake and not only that, but no one thought about all the extra plates you’d need either.  Really the list goes on and on.

On one level it sounds like a “quality problem” until you go on Facebook next day as your “fans”, um excuse me, the people who “like” you, riot on your page and make your little known restaurant the devil’s den.

Unlike direct mail or coupons which have a traditional benchmark for response, social media is very subjective and incredibly difficult to predict. Which means it’s very hard to plan for, making it even more mission critical to have strong contingency plans. You have to plan for the best and worst case scenario – if you can’t support either extreme you need to rethink a campaign you can.

Think of it like this, when I broke my back riding I asked my doctor 6 months after the accident when I could ride again.  He looked surprised and said, “Oh I’m sorry, you can ride right now as long as you don’t fall off.”

For a minute I thought he was joking…when I saw he wasn’t, I looked him in the eye and rephrased, “How soon before I can fall off again.”

Moral of the story? Don’t get on if you if you can’t afford to fall.

Adding social media to the mix increases complexity. The marketer often must dedicate a resource to monitoring media and communicating with consumers. Cultivating and maintaining relationships with hundreds, thousands, or maybe even millions of people is required. Filtering through comments and criticism, responding, and taking appropriate action becomes essential. This isn’t something every marketer is prepared for. The “biggest mistake U.S. marketing professionals have made with social media” is “not allocating proper time/resources,” according to the results of a November 2010 survey reported by eMarketer.

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What Is Your ROI Of Being You?

by Lori Taylor · 0 comments

How Much Do You Give, Take & Spend

1. How much do you give to keep the people who mean the most to you in life happy?

2. How much do you take from the people who love you?

3. How much of your life is spent moving forward to what you really want out of life?

According to Tony Robbins, “The quality of your life is in direct proportion to the quality of your relationships.”

Does this statement ring true for your life?

Are the people you appreciate the most the same people you have invested the most time, energy, and love into over the years?

Or do you find yourself focusing on how you can make time for another task or job that needs completed, but never get around to scheduling lunch with a friend or taking a night off for some R&R?

What if instead of focusing 80-90% of your energy and time on work, you devoted 80% of yourself to the things that make you feel alive and recharged – what would this mean to your life?

What would your friends and loved ones do if you rolled out the red carpet for them, every day?

Who’s A Keeper And Who’s Not

Each of us have several spheres of influence in our lives.

We have friends from social groups, people we see every week at kid school functions or extra-curricular activities, co-workers, and even the friendly gas station clerk you see every week. You affect each of these lives and they in turn impact yours.

You must determine who is most important in your life within these vertical groups and make a short list of who adds “juice” back to your day.

If you’re having a difficult time sorting through your list, try considering this scenario: if you were going to live on a desert island, fully reliant on your “tribe” to survive, who would you bring and why? Who enriches your life so much that you would feel a devastating blow if they were suddenly gone from your life, but you know if you brought them to the island, you’d probably die.

Would this relationship be worth your life? The only difference between a deserted island and your life is the illusion “you have it under control here”.  Things happen, life gets hard and when it does who helps you get through it?  Or better yet, who is making your road bumpier than it has to be.

(And stop avoiding the exercise by thinking of Joe at the gas station – bringing Joe from the Shell Station, is NOT the point.  I want you to start focusing on identifying who the people are you do spend time and energy on vs. the people you should.

Rank Each Group’s Importance

Now that you’ve your short list of potential keepers created for each group, it’s time to note how much time you spend with each group. After you are finished with the list, rank each group,  by which one makes you the happiest, respectively.

Do you notice any disproportionate values among your lists?

Do the soccer moms rank low on your happiness rating but high on your time investment gauge each week?

To the greatest extent possible, adjust the time you spend with each group of friends to match the level of priority of each group in your life. Investing too much time in someone who doesn’t enrich your life not only takes away from the time you could be spending with people you enjoy, it can be as draining as a business meeting or adding yet another task to your to-do list every week.

Stop wasting your time and invest it wisely in those who matter in your life!

Evaluate & Set Relational Expectations

Now it’s critical thinking time, examine each person on your list and think about what each person invests in your life and what you invest in theirs. How do they enrich your life and what do they expect in return?

You see, not all relationships are the perfect balance of give and take.

In fact, most are downright unbalanced and take a great amount of effort to correct. If you collect too many takers in your life, you’ll end up feeling drained and bitter. If you collect too many givers in your life, you’re likely to become an emotional tyrant and forget how to adequately give back to a relationship.

It’s important to ensure that what you put into each relationship equals what you put into it. (And if you find that you don’t, you need to evaluate why your relationships are unbalanced.) If a relationship isn’t enriching your life, wouldn’t it only be logical you would take the time to stop to ask yourself why you continue to invest in it.

Is the relationship feeding a dysfunctional need in your life… or in theirs?

Remember, not every relationship requires equal amount of effort on the part of both parties, and there will be times when you invest heavily, or receive more heavily than you invest. But overall, the balance should be equitable.

Your Network is Your Net Worth – Value It Carefully

Many relationship experts agree your friends are the most influential persons in your life. If this statement is even remotely true, shouldn’t you be very careful about whom you choose as a friend?

Your friends should help you raise your life standards and dream big, rather than drag you down. Surround yourself with people who have similar values as yourself and those who are currently where you want to be in 5, 10, or 15 years or are on their way.

However, it’s important to know you shouldn’t cut someone out of your life simply because they don’t measure up to a certain standard. Some relationships are worth keeping, as long as they don’t become toxic or dysfunctional. After all, some of these people are going in the same direction as you, just a little bit further behind. Which is great, because it is you chance to “pay it forward”.  Give to them what you might be getting from someone else.

Find out who in your inner circle is pushing you to achieve your goals, who is cheering you on, and who is dragging you down.

Evaluate your peer relationships closely to determine who you need invest more in and who you need invest in less. It’s okay to keep a friend who doesn’t urge you on to bigger and better things, but you enjoy being with them, anyway. If they make you happy, they’re likely to be a keeper.

However, it’s not okay to keep around someone who sucks the life out of you and makes you feel bad about yourself. Think about how you can find new role models to connect with and how you can locate those people whom can help you change your life for the better.

Remember, not every relationship requires equal amount of effort on the part of both parties. There will be times when you invest heavily, or receive more heavily than you invest. But overall, the balance should be equitable.

Rolling Out The Red Carpet

Before you can treat your closest friends and peers like royalty, you have to know who matters the most in your life. You also need to know what each person’s needs are and how you can meet those needs. This requires fostering a caring, intimate, healthy relationship. By refusing to waste time on those empty relationships in your life, you free yourself to invest deeply and give everything you have to those who truly do matter in your life.

Prioritizing your relationships and intentionally investing in the lives of others who matter to you can significantly increase your personal power and influence in all areas of your life. Start making changes today and you’ll soon see the difference that investing in others can make.